Melting performance of single screw extruders with a grooved melting zone

A novel melting model for single screw extruders with a grooved melting zone was established. The whole solid plug, which came from the grooved feed zone, was ruptured and melted mainly by continuously changing the volume of the barrel grooves and the screw channel in the grooved melting zone. A new single screw extruder platform with hydraulic clamshell barrels was constructed to investigate the melting of solid polymer with different combinations of barrels and screws. The melting model was verified by experiments. The results showed that the melting started earlier and finished in a shorter length for single screw extruders with a grooved melting zone than that for conventional single screw extruders and the melting efficiency was improved by introducing a grooved melting zone to a single screw extruder. The theoretical values are consistent with experimental results. The novel single screw extruder with grooved melting zone can dramatically increase the plasticizing efficiency and the throughput.